MONTGOMERY — The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday allowed a lawsuit that seeks to shut down a Michigan tribe’s casino to proceed, but parties in Alabama disagree about what the decision means for the state’s Poarch Band of Creek Indians, Escambia County’s effort to tax them and the future of their casinos.

"I think Escambia County has a green light to go forward and tax the tribe," said Sen. Bryan Taylor, a Montgomery Republican who has represented the Escambia County Commission in his law practice.

Not so, said Venus Prince, the tribe’s attorney general.

"We view this as a narrow ruling that does not impact our current trust lands," Prince said.

Taylor and Escambia County Commission Chairman David Stokes said the county is working to set a meeting with the tribe and still is deciding how and whether to address the matter through legal channels.

Escambia County’s tax challenge and the Michigan lawsuit both are tied to a 2009 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court: Carcieri v. Salazar.

In that case, the court overturned the U.S. Department of the Interior’s decision to add new federal trust land to the reservation of a Rhode Island tribe, ruling that the interior secretary did not have the authority to take such action because the tribe was recognized after the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934.

The Poarch Creek, the tribe in the Michigan case and many other tribes across the country also were recognized after 1934. Officials disagree about whether the Carcieri decision means that the existing federal trust lands of such tribes should be turned over to the jurisdiction of their respective states.

If the Poarch Creek land were put under the state’s control, the tribe would be subject to the same state and local taxes as any private business.

It also would be subject to state, rather than federal, gambling laws, which could jeopardize the existence of the tribe’s three casinos. The casinos have seen the nation’s fastest revenue growth for at least three consecutive years, as anti-gambling officials in Alabama shut down similar, competing private casinos on state-regulated land. Wind Creek Casino & Hotel, the tribe’s biggest gambling hall, is on Poarch lands in Escambia County.

Taylor and Stokes have said their goal is not to close the state’s Indian casinos, but merely to tax them. That revenue, including sales and property taxes, could total between $6 million and $12 million each year, according to Stokes.

The Supreme Court on Monday ruled 8-1 to allow the Michigan lawsuit, filed by a private citizen seeking to stop a tribal casino from being built, to be considered by lower courts, but it did not rule on the merits of the case.

Even if the courts ultimately rule against the Michigan tribe, Prince said that it wouldn’t impact the Poarch Creek, as the Poarch Creek tribal lands have been in trust for well beyond a six-year statute of limitations set by federal law.

Still, "The tribal council is willing to sit down with the Escambia County commissioners" to discuss the taxation issue, she said.

Taylor accused tribal officials of "constantly shifting their arguments," saying they previously relied on the federal Quiet Title Act as protection from a challenge of the federal status of their lands. After the Supreme Court’s rejection of the act’s application to the Michigan tribe, they have started to try a different approach, Taylor said.

"We should be taxing everybody who runs a business and owns property in Alabama. It’s the only fair thing to do," Taylor said during a news conference in front of the federal courthouse in Montgomery.

Still, Monday’s Supreme Court decision does not resolve the dispute, he said.